all photos and words by: Mike Danko
Are we ever going to find a parking spot? Bolting down Pennsylvania Ave with the Capitol on the other side of the windshield I was scared shitless; Toby driving a Toyota Selena like it’s the General Lee while chatting up a storm on his cell phone. Then he looks over at me and says “You know, I have a curse. I can anywhere and always find a parking spot” Sure enough, within seconds we landed a spot in front of the Court House.
As soon as you cough up the $20 at the ticketing counter, whose staff is really friendly, you begin to snoop around the concourse to figure out where you want to go next. What sneaks up on you is a Madame Tussaud’s J. Edgar Hoover leaning over a table scowling at you. “I’m watching your every move”
Slowly moving away from the scary G-Man you find an enormous flat panel behind you, listing all of the exhibits and all the current news.
More cool stuff waits upstairs. If we wanted to play it smart Toby and I would have started from the 6th floor, where they have the Early News installation. The second floor features a whole studio playground complete with cameras, broadcast monitors and sound stages. And the best part about it is, you get to play news reporter or meteorologist and then see yourself on screen. Toby and I both agreed that the Newseum is the hall of fame of journalism. Hell, there is even a shrine and a wall of goners. If you make it up to the 6th floor you will immediately run into the PHOTOBAMA wall, which is a must-see. After that, you might want to step onto the Pennsylvania Ave Terrace to get an OK view of the Capitol and the National Gallery of Art West Building. After spending 45 minutes waiting for Toby to finish taking pictures of women and their cleavages on Pennsylvania Ave, we decided to continue the journey. Then I turned to Toby and pointed out that we had only 30 minutes left until the staff would kick us. I have yet to see the cleavage shots, but I am sure they turned out good. Having had only 30 minutes to ingest the rest of the collection, I can’t say much of it stuck with me. So stay tuned for a possible second installment to get the rest. Or stop reading this, get off your ass and go check it out for yourself.
Sadly, I can’t report on what the old Newseum that once had its home across the river in Rosslyn, but I do feel it had some good neighbors: ABC Channel 7 and News Channel 8. The museum may have moved out of the old neighborhood, but it gained the next best thing; The Knight Studio, one of two in-house broadcast studios, is where ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” is taped. Along with that you have the 15 theaters, 14 galleries and 250,000 square feet of space creating a greater museum experience.
There are some people in the press who feel that the Newseum is too over-the-top or too flashy to house journalism artifacts. These people feel that, as long as a newspaper is nothing but a bunch sheets of dirty recycled newsprint, journalists are modestly dressed, the Newseum is misrepresenting the image of journalism. Well, guess what? These days if it’s not on TV, no one gets the message. If news shows don’t have such names Crossfire or Hardball, then they are not appealing to today’s audience. Americans have an appetite for bright shiny things to feed their ADD. So give them their Newseum. And if you really need to find news without all the icing and sparkles then have the Washington Post delivered to your door, or subscribe to your favorite news website’s RSS feed.
Now, I don’t know how the hell we wound up at at the Navy Memorial after leaving the Newseum. Because as we were walking down Pennsylvania Ave, Toby was on his phone and we just sort of started walking in that direction. I guess his Navy homing beacon was kicking in. When he told me that there would be free drinks there, I didn’t put up a fight.
last time i went they had this exhibit where you could stand in front of a green screen and pretend to do the weather report- theyve renovated since me thinks
July 10, 2009 at 1:05 pmThe Newseum isn’t a Smithsonian — it’s a nonprofit, hence the admission fee. Green screen reporting is still there, btw.
July 13, 2009 at 9:12 amI know that, but I still think it should be free.
The Holocaust Museum is free, and I’m pretty sure it’s not part of the Smithsonian either.
July 13, 2009 at 11:46 amnice work danko!
July 13, 2009 at 12:01 pmThe Holocaust Museum (USHMM) is a Smithsonian.
July 13, 2009 at 2:57 pmThe Holocaust Museum is NOT a Smithsonian.
http://www.si.edu/Museums/
I know it’s probably worth the cost of admission, and I do want to go, but I still don’t understand why this isn’t free. I mean it’s DC, it’s a museum, it should be free.
I will probably shell out however much the student cost is and go.
July 9, 2009 at 1:53 pm